Before he locked up the role of the great trickster Loki, Tom Hiddleston was actually in the running to play Thor himself - and here’s the footage to prove it.

Apparently, Hiddleston made it pretty deep into the casting process before Chris Hemsworth won the role, and now some snippets of Hiddleston’s audition have made it online. The footage, captured in the animated GIFs below, show a bare-chested, blond-wigged Hiddleston hoisting Thor’s hammer, along with a clip of him doing his best “Thor face.”

After growing to know and love Hiddleston as Loki over the first phase of Marvel movies, it’s insane to see him on the opposite side as a good guy. Of course, though the dude is built like a small brick house, Hiddleston doesn’t quite have the massive stature to pull off Thor like Hemsworth does.